Wireless networks are now pervasive and vital in society. Wireless networks may transmit and receive information utilizing varying techniques.
A wireless multicomm device is a network adapter that combines more than one wireless technology (each wireless technology may be referred to herein and to those or ordinary skill in the art as a ‘comm’). The different wireless comms might share some of the hardware components on the device (such as radio, antennas etc). Sharing hardware components might limit the usage of the device in a way that at a given time only one of the wireless comms can use the hardware to transmit or receive. Additionally, for multicomm devices that do not have shared hardware components, non-coordinated transmissions or receptions may cause interference to the co-located comm. Power saving is yet another reason why one might want to avoid turning ON both comms simultaneously (regardless if the comms share hardware or not).
In current multicomm solutions, the common practice is to perform a full scanning cycle on one technology (COM1), and only when exhausted, moving to next technology (COM2). It is understood that more than two technologies may be implanted. This might result in very long initial connection time for COM2 in single network environment. Current wireless comm implementations are optimized for single comm environments; hence, when loosing network connections, the comm device engages in intensive scanning efforts, assuming there is no other communication alternative available. Thus the decision on handover (and the handover itself) might be significantly delayed.
Consequently, there is a strong need in the wireless communication industry for a method and apparatus to shorten the duration of initial network selection and handover decisions in multicomm platforms
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements are exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.